394 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



quite low, and packers have been obliged to kill stock only liaK fattened, 

 "just warmed up," as the stock yard expression is, to fill their orders. 

 The demand for mutton is enormous, and a fact which should be sig- 

 nificant to Massachusetts farmers is that the heaviest and most urgent 

 demands come from New England and the Middle Atlantic States. 



It would not be wise to attempt to raise sheep in all sections of 

 Massachusetts, and it is not likely that an immediate and complete 

 change would be found possible in any case. However, the dairy 

 business is not as profitable in many sections as formerly, owing to the 

 high cost of feed stuffs, which has not been met by a corresponding 

 increase in the price received for their products. In the hilly sections 

 of the State, where the pastures are rather poor, considered as a range 

 for other animals, sheep would do best. Here flocks could be estab- 

 lished, which would do away with the farmer's dependence upon dairy- 

 ing. Sheep delight in browsing weeds and undergrowth, and are in 

 their element where cattle and horses cannot thrive. In a few years' 

 time they would bring these old pastures to the point where good 

 pasture grass could grow, and make them more profitable than ever, 

 particularly if they were given a little grain and clover hay while doing 

 the cleaning up work. 



Every farmer who does any general farming could easily raise a few 

 sheep. Their advantages are easily seen, they do much of the cleaning 

 up work mentioned above, and the wool which a ewe clips will often 

 pay for her keep during the year. They can well be kept for the sole 

 purpose of keeping the meat bill down, as they give a carcass which 

 can be used before it spoils in the summer months, something that no 

 other farm animal does, and the pelts of those so used may be sold to 

 the hide man to bring additional income. 



On farms where the owner desires to make sheep a chief industry 

 there are only two principal lines that are profitable in the State, the 

 raising of lambs for the early summer market or the production of 

 winter or "hot-house lambs." It is not jDOSsible to buy lambs for 

 feeding, native lambs not being available, and the cost on the nearest 

 general market, Buffalo, being so high as to preclude buying them and 

 shipping them to New England to fatten. Necessarily the only profit- 

 able meat production with our conditions is where the product is 

 matured at as early an age as possible. The cost of grains is consider- 

 able, and the largest gains from a given amount are made when the 

 animal fed is young. We must therefore get our product to market 

 at as early an age as possible. It is not practical to keep sheep in 

 Massachusetts for their wool alone, in fact, it was wool that destroyed 

 the sheep industry in this State in the first place. Wool can be grown 

 to a profit only on the western mountain ranges, where land is cheap, 

 and where there is little competition with other more intensive indus- 

 tries. In choosing a breed for this State it would, however, be well to 

 choose one which would shear as heavily as possible and yet not 



